CIOs don't earn enough money and should have better structured remuneration packages for performance-related bonuses, according to UK IT chiefs.

silicon.com's own annual Skills Survey found this week that one in five CIOs earn more than £110,000 and a quarter earn between £70,001 and £110,000. The rest take home a more modest annual pay packet of between £40,000 and £70,000.

Half of silicon.com's 12-man CIO Jury IT user panel said CIOs should earn more, given the importance of IT to an organisation, but said salaries should take into account performance-related pay.

Ted Woodhouse, director of IT strategy at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said IT bosses, on average, do earn enough but CEOs need better methods of ascertaining what their IT directors are worth.

He said: "I know some IT directors who should be earning twice or three times what they currently do, and I know quite a few who I would not pay in milk bottle tops."

CIO pay is often a reflection of the value and strategic importance a business places on IT, according to Ben Booth, European CTO at pollsters Mori.

He said: "An organisation that values the contribution technology can make is likely to get a more strategic CIO than one which just wants the lights kept on."

Mark Saysell, IT director at Coutts Retail Communications UK, said IT is crucial to business transformation and that salaries should be on a par with other business unit heads in the company.

He said: "Companies need to realise that IT strategy and technology advancements are being used as the key differentiator between you and your competitors and, if executed correctly, need to be recognised fiscally."

Phil Young, head of IT operations at Amtrak Express Parcels, said the opportunity should be there for those CIOs who add measurable business value to reap the rewards.

He said: "The bonus structure should be such that allows the CIO to realise greater benefits the more value they add to the business, although that's not that easy to quantify and measure due to some of the 'softer' benefits we add during a year."

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Today's CIO Jury was...

Russell Altendorff, director of IS, London Business School Steve Anderson, European IT partner, Davis Langdon Ben Booth, European CTO, Mori Chris Broad, head of IS and technology, UK Atomic Energy Authority Paul Broome, IT director, 192.com Nicholas Evans, European IT director, Key Equipment Finance Paul Haley, director of IT, University of Aberdeen Mark Saysell, IT director, Coutts Retail Communications UK Spencer Steel, IT manger, Informatiq David Supple, head of IT and creative services, Ecotec Ted Woodhouse, director of IT strategy, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Phil Young, head of IT operations, Amtrak Express Parcels

If you are a CIO, IT director or equivalent at a large or small company in the private or public sector and you want to be part of silicon.com's CIO Jury pool, or you know an IT chief who should be, then drop us a line at editorial@silicon.com